Am I Just Targeting One Keyword With My Content? Nope.
A common question that folks have is whether or not they should target only one keyword per post. It is a fair question, because when do research online we are researching individual keyword phrases.
The Assumed Keyword Truth is NOT the Reality.
The idea of being able to target only ONE keyword per post can feel very limiting and it feels as though you are not going to really get much benefit from one post.
When starting out, we naturally question the 'opportunity' of the Internet business world. We are conditioned to be this way from past experiences. The idea is that there are a finite number of keywords out there and there is an incredible amount of competition out there competing in Google and other search engines for these keywords.
If we attempt to rank for a keyword and we don’t strike gold, our efforts were done in complete vain. It’s frustrating and as a result, many folks depart rather quickly from the idea that rankings and results are possible for them online.
However, the opposite is the truth.
Keywords are not finite, they are infinite. They grow by the millions every day (in terms of searches that are performed for the first time in Google). And about their “competition” that is out there. There really isn’t all that much, when you consider there are BILLIONS of keywords and there are very few people that know what they are doing in terms of rankings.
I will explain...
Law of Numbers, It’s Beautiful.
When you consider that 3.4 billion searches take place on Google every day, over 500 million of them being first time searches, I think it will give you perspective as to how much opportunity is out there in the search marketing world alone.
As a member here at WA and as a marketer online you have the ability to rank under any keywords that you want. You do a bit of research, you come up with a list of keywords that are relevant to your niche and that you want to write about, then you write about these in the form of published content on your site.
As a result, you may or may not get ranked under these terms. Let’s say you write 3 new posts every week. Every year you will be publishing 156 new blog posts. That is a lot of content, that is a lot of opportunity.
Naturally, as you build out your website you are going to gain more and more traction in Google and other search engines. This usually takes place around the 3 month mark and then continues to climb from there on out.
Let’s say each post you create, on average, brings in just 3 clicks per day. Some won’t rank at all (0 traffic), some will rank and get much more traffic. That is 450 clicks per day (based on 150 blog posts), and these are unique clicks we are talking about.
If you were to pay for this sort of relevant traffic, you could expect to be paying Google a minimum of $0.50 per click or $225 per day. That is close to $7,000 in free traffic each and every month, all from your efforts!
3 posts per week, cumulatively add up incredibly fast and the law of numbers starts to really make a profound impact on your business.
A Title Can Trigger Many Keyword Variations
When you create a title, you should do so in a way where it is not JUST your keyword. You ideally will be creating captivating and very interesting titles for your blog posts.
Here is an example of two different titles, just to explain the differences:
Example 1, Keyword Only:
Best Affiliate Marketing Training
Example 2, Keyword + Captivating Content:
What is the Best Affiliate Marketing Training? The Good & The Bad
See which one is more interesting, the latter is MUCH more interesting and it will get higher click-throughs in Google and it will also lead to much higher rankings as a result (click-throughs is something that Google does look for in their SEO algorithm).
The thing that I have also done here is target another popular keyword. By virtue, when you “extend’ a keyword phrase, you are going to be targeting all the keywords within that phrase.
In the case of “What is the Best Affiliate Marketing Training”, I am also targeting all of the following keywords which are found in this much larger phrase.
- what is the best affiliate marketing
- what is affiliate marketing
- affiliate marketing training
- best affiliate marketing training
- best affiliate marketing
- affiliate marketing
So I have target one focal point keyword, but in reality within the title alone I am actually targeting 6 keywords that I will have to potential to rank under.
And this is just the start of the keyword potential.
The Actual Content, Comments Can Be HUGE!
I want to be clear, when you write a page or a post on your website you are focused on targeting one keyword.
So the rule, one keyword per post.
But that is far from the reality of what actually happens. You can literally get ranked in Google under 100’s of keywords with one single post. I have had it happen many times over the years and the reason this happens is that your content is not just one keyword, it is 10,000’s of variations of keywords when analyzing it.
Think about the potential rankings you can achieve with a 500 word post, what about a 1,000 word post, 2,000...and so on.
On top of this, I want to point something else out. Comments.
When you start to get engagement in the form comments on your site, these are natural content on your given post. These comments are also part of your posts content and will also get ranked.
Comments are keywords. Comments can lead to more rankings, as does any unique and quality content on your website.
If you are not using the SiteComments platform here at WA, I recommend that you do:
==> SiteComments - Offer and Request Comments Here
So when you sit down to write content, surely consider the keyword you are targeting. BUT (and this is a big one), realize that as you write content you are naturally going to be targeting many more keywords than you initially anticipated targeting.
Next time you sit down to write a new post for your website, just realize the sheer potential of what you are doing. It is brilliant and you are not just making a ‘gamble’ on getting a ranking on your site. You are constructing what could potentially be an article that gets ranked on MANY different keywords and drives traffic to your business for many years.
Over the years I have had SINGLE posts on my websites that drive what would be deemed a full time income for a sustained period of time. One post, maybe an hour of my time, years of income. The brilliant reality of building an authority business online.
Recent Comments
222
Hey Kyle,
An excellent post and it comes at the right time for me.
I am trying to resolve a time management issue and also
realigned my thought process to better serve my needs.
There were several points made in the post that reinforced
my reasons for joining WA. Thanks for sharing and caring.
Cheers,
Ken
Hi Kyle - This is great, thanks! What do you think about repeated use of long phrase keywords throughout a post (eg. Titles, subtitles, slug...the mention it 8 times in 1000 words rule of thumb? I tend to find it repetitive and detracts from good, expositional content. Just been having a discussion about this in the comment thread on one of my recent blogposts so was wondering if you'd chip in with your thoughts. Cheers, Lisa
Mention it 8 times? Not sure where you got that, but there is no accuracy to that at all.
But most definitely, have it in your title, in the first couple of paragraphs, and your slug/description will naturally have it in there, so no need to worry about that...and hen write your content naturally. If there are more instances of your keyword, that is fine.
This is why about 98% of my page and post titles are long tail keywords, so that I not only use a keyword type that gets more than 70% of all search queries but also contain many keyword variations.
When you said, "realize that as you write content you are naturally going to be targeting many more keywords than you initially anticipated targeting." You are talking about LSI I am assuming? I use LSI a lot, but that happens naturally...as you know.
As I have told a couple of newbie members recently, website comments are considered as added content by Google and will help to build rankings. Not just because it is added content but because they also contain keywords.
Example, I was ranking on Google page one for a keyword (a person's name) I never even typed because someone else typed that name into their comment to my website post. I love all the nuances of keywords, I had a good mentor. :)
Masterful. That is the exact underlying benefit of going long tail with EVERYTHING. Even if you want to target something that is super broad, it doesn't make sense to do so because of the nature.
As for the statement, I am referring to ALL words have the opportunity to rank within your content. LSI will naturally help your focal keywords, if you have synonyms for your target keywords throughout your content, you will see higher ranks versus trying to "keyword stuff" your content.
Comments are important in so many ways and they stretch far beyond just the SEO elements. They build trust and they show people that you are actively engaging in your website and they can help promote an ethical and people centric brand.
Inspirational, Kyle. I'm just recently researching about the potential of ranking under different keywords by targeting longer long-tails.
"One post, maybe an hour of my time, years of income. The brilliant reality of building an authority business online." Very well said, I tend to forget all the opportunities in this line of work sometimes when things get rough.
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
Yeah, and the thing is you never know which post it will be. But the law of numbers will always come out in your favour.
If you write a few posts and then "wait" for positive results, they won't happen. If you write regularly, through time you are going to strike it with many of them, not all, but many.
Got it, Kyle. I've been writing regularly for the past 3 months and to my surprise some of my posts are already on page one after a month.
At first, I wanted to go hard on content promotion and link building, but now I prefer your method of focusing on low-competitive keywords and publishing consistently.
And I guess it's unrealistic to expect all posts to rank highly.
Great insights, as always. ;)
Take care,
Anh
This appears to be a permutation and combination bonanza Kyle.
It appears that it triggers myriad opportunities by content generation!. I just went through what I hope was a successful transfer of my site from name cheap yesterday. So it shouldn't be long before I get on board in earnest.
Excellent Michael, hope the transfer goes smoothly for you.
It is definitely natural permutations and keyword combinations that can lead to additional rankings. As you navigate Google you are going to find that not every site that is ranked in the top 10 has the keyword in the actual title, lots of the time it is triggered from internal content.
I have got to say, I think this may be the best thing I have ever read in wa yet . Awesome post thanks so much for all of the help Kyle . I'm so stoked to do this full time . My time will come .
Cheers and thanks again for the motivation
Nicely explained!
Kyle. Question!
What if one day you don't want to do the keyword research, or, you can't find any that have reasonable numbers...
is it a good Idea to just go ahead and write the post, give it a snazzy title, and publish it?
I noticed a lot of people (pat flynn, etc) don't seem to target keywords, but rather just write a nice title out...
I assume this is okay for them, because they're already a big authority...and anything they put on their site is going to be seen anyway by the visitors coming in from googling another keyword term for another post. Also, that content itself is loaded with LSI keywords (like you're hinting at above)
So, question is...when we get keyword researchophobia, should we just say "what the heck, just write the stuff already!"
Hoping you say yes...
assuming you will say yes, but not for every post, just some posts.
I see it as though it is "filler content" something else useful for visitors to a site that they might see only when visiting for another keyword to read a different post.
Jimbi
I actually don't recommend doing that. If you have a following, it sometimes can be fine to write just to write, but I still would put some thought into keywords if you are going to write a pure opinion piece or a walk through post.
You might as well take full advantage of your content and if you are just writing aimlessly you will experience far less results. You absolutely have a better chance of ranking under your target keywords, but the rest of your content has "side effect" benefits.
All true Kyle! I can search things related to my niche and articles of mine show up. I can search for images in Google and my pictures show up. The site is a little over two yeas old, has 134 pages and posts, and over 21k page views a month. I have done that just with SEO and what I have learned here at WA! I get comments each day asking for assistance. "I reply, and people buy!"
This process is one that takes time and persistent effort, whatever that effort is. Just keep working at it! If you can do one post a week, and that is all you have time for, keep at it!!
Thanks, Kyle!! Good stuff! It does work if you work it!!
So awesome Howard, you are a testament to exactly what I am talking about here. The awesome part is now that you have created this base of content, you are likely to get minimum of 21K views per month and as you continue to scale out your content, your existing rankings will continue to climb the ladder.
Additionally, now that you have the formula down and you have authority in your niche, every new post you create is going to strike positioning much higher within the search results.
Keep up the awesomeness!
I can totally attest to everything you're saying here. When I started SEO many moons ago I was just fixated on ranking on my one keyword in a given page. If I didn't I was very annoyed and frustrated. But then I strated digging deeper into my analytics and quickly saw that given page would rank for variations I didn't think of. And I was still getting traffic even if I didn't rank for the initial keyword I wanted.
I think this is why Google eventually made it difficult to track keywords with some of their tools They realized it was an unhealthy fixation that we all had. Hopefully this is an ah ha moment for everyone.
When you think of what you are doing in a very "narrow" way, as is typically done with keywords, it often can feel like playing roulette. Maybe I will rank, maybe I won't and you and I both know that not everything you create will be a home run.
But sometimes stuff you create without the intention of being a home run, actually does become one.
It's a good feeling when you realize just how many keywords you can rank under with one post...and how many keywords a longer tailed keyword is actually targeting (all of the smaller variations within it).
So true Kyle. It's like Christmas when I look into google analytics and see all the weird ways I'm ranking for a given page. It also helps spark my thought process on what other type of keywords to include in future articles. By the way, you should make this part of the training so people can stop downing themselves when they don't see rankings. This thought process is also why I wrote this article in the past: Are Rankings Really That Important?
Yeah, that is a timeless post! I am definitely going to be incorporating this into the training moving forward so people are not so paranoid about every keyword they choose.
Sometimes I go for keywords that make sense to my business, that are very long tail, but get very low traffic for this reason...they are targeting LOTS of keywords with the actual phrase.
actually i do that, i write posts just helpeing or thinking is helpfull for people, not about wanting to rank, and one day may be it will hit!
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Hi Kyle,
I do believe what you mention about comments, a few days ago, I searched on google about the keyword I used, I was really surprised to find it in number one and the headline are the comments I did request and responded by fellow waers.
Thanks for this post, it makes clarity on keywords.
NRosales